Popular doughnut shop in Galt known for their wild creations and icy milkshakes has served its last baker's dozen out of its Grand Avenue location.
Lady Glaze at 20 Grand Ave S. is a small blue building that stands out from the row of neighbouring shops. When driving down Grand Ave. it is almost impossible to miss, unfortunately that small blue building will soon be painted over as a new tenant will soon be moving in.
The Galt bakery has been permanently closed after their lease ran out on Dec. 24.
Owner Mark Brown said this is not the last Cambridge will see of the bakery as they will be opening up a new, smaller location at 1111 Franklin Blvd.
“We have our industrial bakery on Franklin that we bake out of and run deliveries from,” said Brown. “We are going to open up a small store front there for the time being.”
Lady Glaze originally opened at their Grand Avenue location in Nov. 2021 as a temporary pop-up location. They extended their lease for another six months in order to serve the need from the community and seamlessly transfer into another location in downtown Galt.
The proximity to a downtown core was vital to Lady Glaze as their business model revolves around being within walking distance to large numbers of people. Brown thinks their new location on Franklin will do for now, but being in an industrial area isn’t ideal.
The current central bakery makes the doughnuts fresh every morning for all of the locations in Kitchener, Guelph, Stratford, Hamilton and formerly Cambridge. Currently they are baking around 3,000 doughnuts a day and in the summer that increases to around 6,000 a day.
One of the driving factors Brown says led them to the decision to utilize their Franklin bakery as a temporary storefront is that now is not the best time to launch a new location.
In the month of December. their sales weren’t exactly where they wanted them to be and they were seeing a decrease in sales, despite it normally being one of the busiest times of the year, he added.
“In retail for the month of December you’d expect sales to be up, ours were actually down compared to years prior,” noted Brown. “With the cost of living rising, higher inflation and the holidays it was like 'what do you get, Christmas presents or doughnuts?'”
The plan was to move from Grand Avenue at the end of their lease and into a larger storefront in downtown Galt. This would allow them to expand on their coffee, cafe and milkshake capabilities, making them a more well-rounded cafe.
With high rental costs and stiff competition in the area, Brown decided to scale back the Cambridge operation and consolidate the bakery and store for the time being.
“We are still looking for a new location and can hopefully be back in a bigger and better way soon,” Brown said. “We are constantly walking around the downtown areas looking for the perfect spot.”
The goal is to provide the same experience whether a customer is at the Kitchener, Stratford or Cambridge location. They want to improve on the consistency and a new location would be needed to achieve this.
“We’ve gotten so much love from the community and Cambridge has been so great to us, we are really excited to be able to still be out of our main bakery.”
The new Cambridge location will be serving fresh doughnuts starting this month. More updates will be posted on the Lady Glaze Facebook page.
